Redshift #2

Welcome back! Now we have twice as many of these link posts as we did when we posted the last one.

Blogging

On All the Anime’s company blog, Jonathan Clements reviews Maria Roberta Novielli’s new book Floating Worlds: A Short History of Japanese Animation. Floating Worlds itself sounds like it might not be worth its price, but the review touches on some teasing problems: how do you delineate anime? And is the core of its history established by taste, prizes, large viewership or profit? (Also, this is an example of a review written by someone who wasn’t referenced and feels they should have been, a subgenre in which I take an odd delight. — T.)

AtA also have an essay on Princess Arete from Andrew Osmond. Although this is promoting their forthcoming UK release of the film and could just have been a puff piece, it contains some interesting material on the reception of the film’s source material, The Clever Princess, in Japan, and some remarks from the original author, Diana Coles.

Mike Toole surveys the phenomenon of the late sequel, including one of my (T’s) favourite examples, Kotetsushin Jeeg. The gap between Kotetsu Jeeg (1975) and its sort-of kind-of sequel (2007) is the longest sequel wait I’ve heard of, too, and amusingly the sequel is set after even more time has passed in-universe.

In a similar vein, though with a more focused topic, Land of Obscusion trots through the anime revivals of various older manga put together by Akira Tsuburaya’s company around the turn of this century. Many of these anime have now been forgotten in their turn. (Barom One, anyone?)

Wrong Every Time’s series of episodic notes on Simouncovers the show’s eighth episode. (Which I remember well. It’s an important step for the show as a whole. — T.) (This series of posts is really egging me on to watch Simoun earlier than I had planned… — F.)

There’s a new post at The Afictionado about escape narratives and adolescence in the Utena film and some show which is more modern and so, to us, obviously unknown.

Yatta-Tachi has a short overview of legal routes to watching older anime.

Podcasts

Anime Feminist has a pair of podcasts discussing the Fushigi Yuugi OVAs from the 1990s, a shoujo manga series by Yuu Watase which spawned a TV anime and several OVAs, accompanied by a sustained reflection on growing up a fan of the FY anime.

The Anime of Yesteryear group chat about the two-episode 1987 OVA, High School Agent.

The Dynamite in the Brain podcast has a session covering their top ten anime of 2008. Meanwhile a side project, Famous Anime Podcast, picks out ‘famous’ anime from 2003 using a mixture of TV ratings, personal taste and shows’ simple survival in the memory gauntlet.

Twitter

And here’s another neat thread about some of the historical context for Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex. (I didn’t know the Home Ministry building in the show was modelled on the prewar one! — T.)

And, finally, here’s a tweet which sparked, with its replies, an interesting little hunt for a few of Sailor Moon‘s possible antecedents and influences.

What we’re up to

Feez — Still making my way through Nadia; about 10 episodes in now. I’m really digging its comedy and adventure. I don’t really know what to think of the KKK-inspired antagonist group that they’ve introduced, but they’re bad and doing bad things. Curious to see how this all is incorporated into SRW X. I recently finished the Saint Seiya: Hades Chapter OVAs, which finishes up the original manga’s story. They were… well, they’re uneven, but still enjoyable. I wish the 80s TV anime hadn’t ended early and had finished off the story as intended. Next on my Saint Seiya journey are the 80s films! In other news, Xenogears celebrated its 20th anniversary this weekend. It’s my favorite video game and one I treasure a lot. 20 years, huh? Time flies.

Thaliarchus — It’s been a busy fortnight at work, and I’ve not had the time off I’d like (read: need!). But I did get hold of that copy of Sonnets from Scotland I mentioned in our last post, and I’ve been enjoying its contents in odd moments. I’ve fitted in a couple more eps of Dunbine but don’t have much to report on that front! I’ve also kept up with the new, first translation of Gamba no Bouken noted above, and that’s been really strong: I look forward to it every week.